23 March 2008

CTL 125TSB 0.2Came into the race fit for me but not that strong relative to the rest of the cat 4's and a little bit heavy from eating out all the time. I think I did this race once before and got dropped after the feed hill so my first goal was to make it through one whole lap with the pack. We got use of the whole road when there were no lane stripes excepting oncoming traffic of course. Felt comfortable sitting midpack for the main climb until we got to the last pitch and faltered a bit, dangling about fifty meters behind. There were about fifteen guys behind me and seventy guys in front by the time we started descending. Edged closer and closer and after about five minutes of chasing got to the group, on the second turn around the lake. Enjoyed a 45 mph descent in the comfort of a pack of seventy riders. The finish hill seemed really easy but the hard part is getting there with the pack. ot through one lap OK so mission accomplished. Started having trouble on the second lap midway up the climb. The steep little bits were starting to take it's toll and we were down to forty riders in the main group. I felt a little twinge in my calf to remind me of the cramping at Cantua so I backed off a little bit. This marked the end of my stay with the pack as they slowly rode away from me. The data shows that this lap was actually easier up to this point than the first lap so either fatigue or loss of concentration caused me to get dropped, maybe I should have ignored the cramping sensation? Anyways, rode the next lap and half with different groups of cat 4 riders, sometimes catching riders, sometimes passing riders and finishing pretty much where I was when I got dropped by the pack.

Did better than I expected but not as well as I would hope, and it was still a great day to be on the bike.